As wireless communication technology continues to develop, it is inevitable that emerging wireless services will coexist with established services for at least some period of time. For example, some parts of the world already see, or will soon see, UMTS service coexisting with GSM. One way for wireless service providers to save money, at least in such interim periods, is to install base station equipment that is suitable for use in multiple frequency bands, which include the bands of both the established and the emerging services. In particular, it will be useful to install antennas suitable for use in more than one frequency band.
Multiple-band antennas are known. However, at least some of these antennas are relatively expensive because they have relatively many components which furthermore comprise several different construction materials. Moreover, currently available multiple-band antennas are typical constructed from several elements, each element corresponding to a distinct frequency band of operation. Such construction from multiple elements is generally disadvantageous because it leads to overall antennas that are ungainly and visually obstructive, and because it may also lead to antennas having asymmetric beam patterns.